WMATA: Public forum for MetroAccess riders set for March 13
Dear Fellow MetroAccess Rider,
I have depended on MetroAccess for 11 years. I live in the District of Columbia and I know firsthand what you face to get from home to work, the doctor or grocery store.
Please join your fellow riders and me at a special Public Forum for MetroAccess Riders to focus on finding solutions for MetroAccess customers' needs.
Monday, March 13, 2006 3-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.*
Metro Headquarters Lobby Level
600 Fifth Street NW, Washington DC
By Metrorail: Judiciary Sq or Gallery Pl-Chinatown station
By Metrobus: D1, D3, D6, P6, 70, 71, 80 or X2
February In Review
It's now the end of the first full calendar month since MV Transportation took over the MetroAccess contract from Logisticare.
It's been a month highlighted by astounding numbers of complaints, a whole lot of denials and defensiveness, a Congressman stepping into the fray, as well as DC Councilmembers, and a new General Manager for WMATA who probably is wondering right now just what the hell he walked into.
Some things have improved since the beginning of the month, as MV Transportation and (surprisingly) WMATA have taken the feedback of riders on board and implemented changes to what we were presented with on January 15th.
Into The Lion’s Den – DC ParaTransit Info Visits MetroAccess
DC ParaTransit Info had been invited independantly by Mr Christian T. Kent, Director of MetroAccess Services for WMATA, and Mrs Nikki Frenney, Director of Communications for MV Transportation, to visit the new control center at Silver Springs, so that we could see the operation in action, as well as bring some of the questions we had about the service's operations.
We took advantage of this offer and visited the control center on February 20th 2006, where we were given an unexpected level of access both to some of the top executives of MV Transportation and the control center itself.
Two Plus Two Equals … Huh?
DC ParaTransit Info has been asked why we don't trust the statistics WMATA publishes on their web site. Outside of WMATA's exclusion of complaints filed in the most logical place for riders to complain to, the simple fact is, their numbers literally don't add up.
We know that WMATA disclaims their figures as being preliminary, but even their preliminary figures don't add up, even allowing for rounding errors. We ran basic math on their published figures, and easily found these discrepancies in the stated on-time performance total, based on the total statistics WMATA is making public:
The Devil is in the Numbers
A press release on the WMATA website reads:
About 16,000 people in the Washington region are registered for MetroAccess, which has more than doubled in use and more than tripled in cost over the last several years.
Now if a person were to hear that statement it would definitely give them pause. This statement is followed by numbers which in no way bear the statement out.
It cost $12.5 million to provide 477,160 passenger trips in fiscal 1999, compared to $42 million and 1.2 million passenger trips in fiscal 2005.
Let's look at this for a minute.
Record number of people with disabilities using free ride program
WMATA released the news today that 1,154 MetroAccess riders so far have signed up for the Free Ride program that we wrote about recently.
The press release also notes that the number of people who have signed up for the Free Metro system orientations, run through WMATA's Office of ADA Programs, has jumped to 23, and that both Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and Services for the Visually Impaired are working in partnership with Metro in helping people learn how to use the system safely and effectively.
Whilst both of these things are good news, we have some issues with the press release.
The Magic 8-Ball: Alive and Well
The magic 8-Ball, that wondrous device by which MetroAccess dispatchers throughout the ages have been able to foretell the time of arrival of a rider's transport when the aforementioned rider, quite irate, is on the phone with them. We thought it lost, gone forever when the contractors changed, but lo! It has returned!
It's a bygone of the Logisticare days, the seemingly random numbers we would be given over the phone as to how long away our overdue pick-ups were, and one we thought we were well shot of, but unfortunately it's beginning to look like Reservationists and Dispatchers under MV are reinstating the practice by themselves.
Post: Metro Pushes Big Bus Service Improvements
Buried at the bottom of the Post's article today about WMATA's changes to the bus routes is a note that WMATA is to pilot giving MetroAccess drivers cell phones to use to contact riders directly when necessary.
This move, coupled with MV Transportation's returning rider's phone numbers to the manifests a few weeks ago, is a positive step towards giving the drivers (and the riders) back some of the tools that enable the service to run more efficiently, allowing direct driver-to-rider contact to help locate them in those impossible-to-find-on-the-map places.
DC Council Budget Meeting February 2006
DC ParaTransit Info was present during the DC Council Budget meeting on February 22nd 2006, both to report and to offer testimony.
To be honest, there was nothing really came out that was earth shattering, although both Councilmembers Schwartz and Graham had many questions to ask the WMATA representatives, including the newly-appointed Interim General Manager Mr Dan Tangherlini, as well as the Board Chairman Mrs Gladys Mack.
At one stage a little piece of verbal misdirection, whether intentional or accidental, managed to derail a question by Councilmember Schwartz on the subject of complaint numbers. This wasn't followed up on because of a comment by Mrs Pamela Wilkins, Acting Assistant General Manager of Customer Contract Services who oversees the service, made, that "MetroAccess riders have the number memorized".
Metro announces members to MetroAccess review committee
Metro announced today the remaining members of the new ad hoc committee created to review MetroAccess service. Metro announced last week it was creating the Ad Hoc MetroAccess Advisory Committee as part of its efforts to improve the service.
The newly named committee members include: MetroAccess riders Penny Reeder of Maryland and Ann Pimley of Virginia; Harold Snider, chair of the Montgomery County Commission for People with Disabilities; John R. Hudson, Program Manager of the Disability Services Planning and Development Department for Fairfax County; and Takoma Park Mayor Kathy Porter, who also was the lead author of the Transportation Planning Board's recent report on MetroAccess service.
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